Mike Woods' News and Views: State college basketball teams struggling

Taking a spin around the sports world wondering if the Lions will petition the NFL next season to play their intrasquad scrimmage at Lambeau, so they can officially end their 21-year losing streak in Wisconsin.

News: The annual round-robin of our state schools competing for bragging rights is currently under way, with Marquette gaining the early upper hand with a win over Wisconsin.

Views: As it stands today, this doesn't look to be a great year for our state basketball teams. No one has beaten a ranked team. Both Marquette and Wisconsin were swamped by Florida, a top-10 team, which is easily the best competition each has faced thus far. That's not a good sign.

Both UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee are struggling mightily, with the Phoenix at 3-5 and the Panthers at 3-7.

Bo Ryan and his staff have always seemed to be able to pull things together, but this may be the one year they can't pull it off as they will soon enter Big Ten play. This is a conference that currently has six teams in the top 25, including four in the top 10. And none is named Wisconsin. The Badgers will have nine games against the Big Ten's current ranked opponents.

Marquette won't have it any easier. Five Big East teams are ranked and they have six games scheduled against those schools.

Even with Butler gone from the Horizon League, Green Bay and Milwaukee are currently not equipped to take advantage.

It has been 1998 since Wisconsin had no representative in the NCAA Tournament. As things stand today, that streak looks to be in danger.

News: It's revealed former Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema wrote a hand-written letter to Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long last September, commending him on the way he handled the Bobby Petrino firing.

Views: Bielema's already low popularity in Wisconsin just dropped another rung. Say what you will, the guy is smart. Or perhaps cunning is a better word.

He was clearly getting his name out there and, however small, began a relationship with Long. And in this day and age when email, Facebook and the like are the modus operandi for the vast majority, taking the time to pen a hand-written note pretty much ensures you won't easily be forgotten.

Bielema was greasing the skids in case things didn't work out for interim coach John L. Smith. They didn't and Long remembered Bielema, who obviously benefitted from his record of success at Wisconsin.

This method of advancement may not be found in any guidebook, but it certainly proved effective for Bielema.

News: Western Kentucky hires Petrino as its head football coach.

Views: There are probably many of you out there who feel a large degree of righteous indignation about this hire. After all, Petrino has a history of being a sleaze ball and his scandalous exit from Arkansas was highly embarrassing to the university.

But the guy needs a job, he's a very good football coach and Western Kentucky certainly knows what it's getting. When you're a small school trying to make a name for yourself, and knowing a successful football program can add all kinds of money to your coffers, this is what you sometimes do. It's a risk. They've decided it's worth it. They know if Petrino succeeds he won't hang around for long. Both parties, in many respects, are using each other. This, folks, is college football.

News: ESPN, in a stunning development, was discussing the future of the most talked about backup quarterback in the history of the NFL in Tim Tebow. After one analyst suggested the Jets would release him after the season, Mike Greenberg chimed in and wondered aloud if anyone would pick him up because he has "been such a distraction."

Views: That may have been the most disingenuous observation made this year. This is the network that single-handedly made him a distraction with its daily, non-stop coverage solely because it drove ratings. Now one of the perpetrators says no NFL team may want Tebow solely because he's too much of a distraction? That's having absolutely no clue and no class.

News: Cowboys defensive lineman Josh Brent is charged with intoxication manslaughter after the car he was driving flipped and killed teammate Jerry Brown early Saturday morning.

Views: Many are making the leap that the NFL has a problem, as this comes on the heels of Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher killing his girlfriend before taking his own life just one week earlier.

This is not an NFL problem. Domestic violence and drunken driving are societal problems. And the NFL is merely a part of our society. They talk about fines and suspensions as being possible deterrents or solutions, but don't buy any of that. This is about personal responsibility and education. All the NFL can really do is continue to earnestly educate its players and hope the personal responsibility will follow. There is no magical solution to this, even though we all wish there was.